Tom Thibodeau Shares Respect for Knicks Past After Breaking Record

They don't think to call him Godfather, but Tom Thibodeau is a spot above him in New York Knicks history.

With Saturday's shellacking of the Atlanta Hawks, the Knicks head coach moved into fourth place on the franchise's all-time coaching list, breaking a tie with Pat Riley on the metropolitan leaderboard with 225 triumphs on the sidelines. Obviously burdened with larger goals, Thibodeau did away with the individual accolades that could've come with such an accomplishment and started rattling off names of Knicks past and present who he felt deserved way more credit.

“I’ve had a great team. I’ve got great players. It’s a great organization, so you share in all that stuff as a group,” Thibodeau said, per Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News. “As far as Pat Riley, he’s unbelievable. Probably the best to ever do it.”

Thibodeau just missed Riley's Knicks tenure, joining the Knicks' assistant coaching staff one year after Riley took the top most in Miami in 1995. He nonetheless credited Riley for his sideline influence, as well as his band of assistant coaches which currently includes accomplished basketball names like Rick Brunson and Maurice Cheeks.

“I’ve been around a lot of people that have had great influence on me. Obviously the head coaches, but a lot of assistant coaches have had great impact on me as well," Thibodeau said per Winfield, referring to himself as a "mutt." “Brendan Malone worked for Hubie Brown and Chuck Daly. Jeff [Van Gundy] worked for Pat Riley, Don Nelson, John MacLeod, Rick Pitino. You’re stealing from everybody. I’ve been around some of the all-time greats in the history of the game, and that’s good fortune for me.”

Van Gundy, Thibodeau's longtime collaborator in New York, is next on the Knicks' coaching wins list at 248 while Joe Lapchick is in second place at 326. It might be a tall task for Thibodeau to catch the all-time leader Red Holzman, who sits alone at 613 wins after 14 year at the helm.

Nonetheless, Thibodeau's current men reveled in his latest landmark and returned the credit to him after dismantling Atlanta by a 121-105 final that was hardly as close as the scoreboard indicated.

“It’s dope. It’s a tribute to the talent that he has in terms of coaching and success,” Josh Hart said, per Winfield. “It also shows the stability the franchise has with him — and needs with him. A great accomplishment, and hopefully we keep going up.”

Make sure you bookmark Knicks on SI for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns as and so much more!